


The Other Green Room

by houjunmai



Series: Fanfic Realm AU [1]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Crack, Gen, Meta, mentions of M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-30
Updated: 2011-09-26
Packaged: 2018-12-19 09:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11894673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houjunmai/pseuds/houjunmai
Summary: Deep in the Universe of Hidden Worlds…,…there is a Realm dedicated to regulating fictional stories written by fans based on well-loved works……or in this case, well-loved artists.Such is Fandom and Fanfiction.As there are different Fandoms, so are there different Fanfics……and the vastness of the Realm of Fanfiction cannot be measured in the number of Departments alone.For as long as there are fans, the Realm continues to exist……and the Forces-At-Work shall continue to weave the stories.Yet, there shall be days when little hiccups occur in this otherwise flawless organization.Such hiccup is the setting of this story.





	1. Matsumoto-san Awakes

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fanfic Lounge: The Fellowship of the Ring, The](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3726941) by CNell [archived by [HASA_Archivist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist)]. 



> First-ever attempt at an Arashi fanfic (and fanfics in general, come to think of it). This work was written for MatsuJun’s 28th birthday and was originally posted on LJ back in 2011, between 30th August and 26th September. Now reposted in whole here on AO3 for MatsuJun’s 34th (how time flies!) along with the other Fanfic Realm AU works. References are old. This fic is old. But still, yay, Arashi!

**— » — « —**

It was one of those creeping sensations as one falls asleep like something will happen soon but one can no longer do anything else except to let sleep take over. One moment, Matsumoto Jun was closing his eyes, and in the next, as soon as he felt the need to struggle back to waking consciousness, his eyes blinked open and he was looking straight at the ceiling…which did not belong to his bedroom. His bedroom ceiling, in fact, didn’t have such fancy overhead lighting, nor was it immaculately white. The…place, he decided, was far too bright compared to the last time he saw his bedroom (a couple of seconds ago), and there was no lamp on the nightstand beside his bed. And…he wasn’t on his bed either, he soon realized.

“Oh, good heavens! You’re awake now, eh…Domyouji Tsukasa-san?”

Despite being a little disoriented at being called by his drama character’s name, Jun sat up (on one of the most comfortable couches he’s ever sat on in his entire life) and answered briefly, “It’s Matsumoto Jun, actually.”

“Eh? Really?!” a male voice, it then registered to Jun, exclaimed dramatically. Jun made a face, his ears slightly ringing from the sudden outburst.

“Ah, I’m really sorry, Matsumoto-san, I thought it was the _Hana Ki_ —I mean— _Hana Yori Dango_ characters we were supposed to be having today? You don’t mean Ara—, aww, heck…” A sigh was heard cutting off the rest of the words, followed by the shuffling of several sheets of paper, and then some more mumbling from which ‘ _can’t mean the idols themselves_ ’ and ‘ _replace the teacups with their colours_ ’ followed soon before Jun could locate the owner of the voice.

It was a harried-looking young man in his early twenties, wearing plain office clothes and an ID tag. He was running around the room while worriedly poring over a clipboard, and Jun might have thought his presence on the couch was already forgotten if the young man wasn’t shooting him panicky looks every time he passed him by. Surprisingly unaffected, Jun temporarily left him to his anxiety as he took in the rest of the room wherein he had woken up.

It was a nice, albeit smallish, room with doors on both sides and a kitchen entrance on one corner. There was the long and very comfortable green couch he was sitting on, and to the right were a pair of matching armchairs while to the left were several bean bags and cushions neatly piled on top of one another. Right in front of him was a coffee table fashionably made of aluminium and glass, and on top were several publications, the titles of which were definitely not found in Tokyo, yet very much familiar. Jun looked down at his feet to confirm the presence of a fluffy dark green rug and subsequently noticed that he was missing footwear. _Oh, right. I was sleeping_ , he thought to himself as he finally realized that he was wearing his favourite sleep clothes.

By the time Jun was remembering bits and pieces of memories related to this weirdly familiar room, the young man was already pouring him a cup of tea on a purple-coloured ceramic cup, with ‘Jun’ written in fancy calligraphy on one side. It was then served to him on a matching coaster, and Jun noted that there were four other teacups (in blue, red, green and yellow) and that the teapot was labelled ‘Arashi-sama’ in the same fancy calligraphy. He knew that teapot.

“I’m sorry about that, Matsumoto-san, but I’ve contacted my direct supervisor and sorted it out,” the young man said as he arranged the other cups on the tray.

“Don’t tell me you’re new to this job,” Jun said after taking a sip of his tea. The young man ticked off several items on his clipboard before facing him with a smile (a bit nervous though).

“I suppose you can say that. There was a bit of an emergency and they suddenly had to pull in a trainee—that would be me—from the J-Drama Department so the Secretary could go over the JE Department and settle some discord over a supposedly plagiarized fanfic in the SMAP Section. I was given today’s schedule, and I must say that you’re quite early this morning, Matsumoto-san…you must be highly disoriented right now, aren’t you? According to the schedule, Arashi is expected at 10 o’clock at the earliest. Good thing the 8 o’clock _Hana Yori Dango_ meeting was cancelled today, I’m not too sure of what I ought to do if Domyouji Kaede-sama were to threaten to sue the department again for allowing the fans to merely contemplate pairing her off with Nishida, or something like that rumour back in 2006…” and the young man sighed once more, with Jun swallowing a chuckle.

“But that’s for the J-Drama Department to handle, right? And you said you’re supposed to fill in for JE today,” Jun found himself saying. He was indeed disoriented, but he’s slowly remembering; he’s been here with his bandmates before, and at another time, with Oguri Shun…he knew the purpose of being here, yet the name of the place escaped him still.

“True, but you do know the history between JE and J-Drama, don’t you?” came the answer, “it’s partly through your agency that J-Drama fan fiction burst to mega-activity, ever since Kimura-san and SMAP rose to epic popularity. Not to mention the JE Department has been helping out in the J-Drama Department ever since you made _HanaDan_ famous in 2006…”

“Well, sure, blame it on me,” Jun replied with nonchalance, enjoying the memories of the conversations from the first time he was called to this place, although he had been indignant when the Secretary told him that Arashi fanfiction flooded both the J-Drama and JE Departments during the large influx of newly-seduced fans after _Gokusen_ and _Hana Yori Dango_ aired outside Japan.

“Almost all those new fans and writers claimed they were ‘Jun-baited’ so of course most of the responsibility is placed on you because they’ve been since then exposed to Arashi fan service…”

“Ohmiya is not my responsibility; Nino’s been groping Riida and gaining attention for it way before they decided to perm my hair,” the idol countered.

“Oh, right.” And they both fell into meditative moods. After a while,

“So what do we call you?” Jun asked the young man as he continued to sip his tea.

“Ah, I’m sorry I haven’t properly introduced myself,” the young man answered, scrambling to his feet for a more formal introduction. “I’m the Trainee from the J-Drama Department, and I’m here to conduct today’s scheduled monthly fanfic evaluation in place of the Secretary. I look forward to working with all of you,” the Trainee said, bowing low before sitting on the cushion he had occupied earlier.

“I’m Matsumoto Jun from Arashi and I hope we can get along well,” and Jun bowed back with the same politeness. “And you’re training for what exactly?” he then asked as he sat down.

“Well, all of us Trainees are training for either Section Supervisor or Secretary under the J-Drama Department, although most get assigned to particular dramas and character pairings. I’ve handled some files from the Live-Action Section, which included your _Kimi wa Petto_ and _HanaDan_ , and, of course, it involved a lot of sorting out between cross-overs with the rest of Arashi...”

“What do you mean—I had to play pet to the members?” Jun asked, slightly incredulous.

“Mostly to Sakurai-san and Ohno-san, yes,” Trainee answered as-matter-of-factly. And confused, he added, “You mean you don’t remember?”

“Disoriented, yeah?”

“Oh, right. Well, it’s just a matter of time before everything comes back to you…but still, I wonder why you’re early for today.” The mystery of why Jun arrived ahead of schedule was then pondered by the Trainee, who blabbered about theories as absurd as that morning being the end of the Realm of Fanfiction, or that the Mary Sues had been set loose in the AU Control Room and are currently wreaking havoc. Jun listened without much concern, still trying to piece together why he mostly knew what the Trainee was talking about and yet not remembering everything still. With a big sigh, he leaned back on the couch and immediately leapt back up when out of the corner of his eye, there seemed to be Ohno Satoshi snoozing on the other side of the couch.

“Riida!?”

“Eh? Ohno Satoshi-san?!” the Trainee exclaimed, looking up from his spot. Sure enough, there was Arashi’s leader, peacefully sleeping with his head bowed and wearing what looked like his fishing gear.

This earned a click of the tongue from Jun, who didn’t like it much when Ohno fished all day under the sun to the point of frying his complexion in extremity. “Fishing again,” the idol was heard muttering and was looking like he was resisting the urge to kick his bandmate awake. If not only for the seemingly innate knowledge that Ohno would be twice as disoriented as he had been if he were to be woken forcefully, Jun would have given him a well-deserved shaking.

The Trainee, on the other hand, was checking his clipboard again, doubly perplexed at the sudden appearance of Ohno. He was carefully noting details about the man’s attire, furiously scribbling on his clipboard before putting it down and taking a PDA from his pocket. Curious, Jun stood up to check what the Trainee was doing, and he merely caught the blur of a search item before the PDA produced an index within a couple of blinks. Jun inwardly cursed his need of glasses, and why contacts needed to be removed before going to sleep.

“It seems like Ohno-san has just been dragged here from another fanfic…there’s a fishing scene…either from this particular Yama fic or this month’s ninth Ohmiya smut-fest…unless this is Yano Kenta?” analyzed the Trainee, quickly tapping several other search items on his PDA.

“Really? I haven’t meet Yano Kenta before. Or…careful, that could be Naruse Ryou, you know,” Jun remarked with a little more interest. He sat down on his spot to finish his tea.

“Goodness! All the more to keep him unconscious if I’m to keep my job until the end of the month,” the Trainee answered absentmindedly, not taking his eyes off the screen. “Well, okay, to be fair, I haven’t handled anything _Maou_ -related yet, but judging from the talks in the Remake Section, there’s a lot of OOC Naruses scattered about that it’s become very hard to keep track of where the more faithful characterizations are. I wouldn’t be surprised if Naruse-san himself will be executing another one of his genius revenge plots on the department one of these days.” And the Trainee shuddered before composing himself and continuing his analysis.

“Well, whoever this tanned idiot is, have you figured out why he and I are here in the first place?” Jun pointed out, stretching on the couch.

“He’s definitely Ohno-san; that much I can tell, and he’s been pulled from the introductory chapter of an R-rated fic with Ninomiya-san. It’s a recent addition, and going extremely slow as there’ll be much angst and melodrama involved, with the writer keen on adding a lot of extra details before they start dancing the official tango…” the Trainee answered unhelpfully; and it was Jun’s turn to shudder this time. Whatever details the Trainee was referring to, Jun had no intention to imagine as he’s never really had pleasant experiences when it was his turn to do smut and slash. He merely suppressed another shudder and refused to further contemplate on the topic.

“Oh, but to answer the question…well…allow me to contact my supervisor again. Please excuse me, Matsumoto-san,” the young man said apologetically, taking his clipboard with him and entering the door marked ‘Staff Only’.

Jun sighed again as he turned to his dozing companion. He wished Ohno would wake up soon so he could ask the older man if he, at least, remembers the name of this place. But their leader has always been the sleepy AND disoriented one, and it probably won’t make a tiny difference whether he woke up of his own accord or brutally dragged back to consciousness. So he was about to wake Ohno for fun when his foot brushed against something at the base of the couch.

Reaching between his feet, Jun pulled out a thick folder with lots of loose leaves sticking out of it. He checked for any labels, but the thing was completely unmarked from the outside. Jun hesitated to look inside for fear of nightmarish NC-17 scenes that usually accompany epic-length projects, but he then remembered that folders are clearly marked with their rating for proper identification, regardless of title whatsoever. _Censorship is definitely a top priority in this realm_ , he remembered being told the first time he got here. Pouring himself another cup of tea and decidedly ignoring Ohno beside him, Jun opened the file and scanned through the papers.

It was a concept folder, Jun soon discovered, a compilation of unwritten fanfic ideas from various authors. _No wonder it’s not yet rated_ , he thought as he quietly shuffled through the papers. But before he could browse further, he felt a stirring beside him. Thinking it was Ohno finally coming around, Jun turned to his left and waited for his bandmate to wake up…until he realized that the movement came from the right.

“HOLY SH—!” Jun had exclaimed before stopping himself in mid-curse, jumping out of his spot on the couch, clutching both the folder and his teacup in panic. Like Arashi’s leader, Sakurai Sho suddenly materialized without his knowledge, but worse, he was half-way naked and appeared to be covered in sweat. Jun wondered if Sho came out of a fanfic as well, and while he was afraid to find out the rating, he at least knew that his newly-arrived band mate would suffer from the cold if he wasn’t given anything to cover himself with.

Calming down from the unwelcome surprise, Jun put the folder and teacup down on the table to figure out how to help Sho. He thought of dumping the cushions over the half-naked figure but knew it wouldn’t be enough. Seeing the entrance to the kitchen, Jun tiptoed over to see if it contained other things besides food. Luckily, there was also a door marked ‘Toilet’ and another door marked ‘Housekeeping’. This, Jun opened, and sure enough there were a bunch of thick-looking sheets. Jun took one and unfolded it, recognizing the cloth as a couch cover.

He was relieved when it was big enough to serve as a temporary blanket for Sho, and Jun felt glad that the older man looked more comfortable than before. He also checked on Ohno, and to his dismay, he was still as peaceful as he had been the moment he arrived in the room. Jun was about to wonder where the Trainee had gone, but he was saved from further thought when said young man re-entered the room.

“Look who decided to join us,” Jun announced before the Trainee to could take notice.

“Huh, what—whoa! Sakurai Sho-san?” the Trainee marvelled a little too enthusiastically that Jun wondered if the young man suffered from short-term memory loss. He is expecting Arashi by 10 o’clock, isn’t he? It shouldn’t be too surprising if by this time the rest of the members arrived one by one, given that Jun had already arrived out of schedule.

“But why is he bundled in the couch cover? As of this moment, he should be at his scheduled NC…oh!” and the Trainee’s little mumble of recognition was enough for Jun. The youngest Arashi member pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a slight headache coming.

“Trainee-san, would you mind telling me what is going on?”

“Well, it seems that there are a bunch of Mary Sues on the AU Control Room wreaking havoc at the moment,” the Trainee replied weakly, Jun almost didn’t hear him.

“Oh…great.”

**— » — « —**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2018.09.14] - ran the chapter through Grammarly for a quick check and edit


	2. A Memo From Technical Assistance

**— » — « —**

“Mary Sues…” Matsumoto Jun said in a hollow voice, “in the AU Control Room.”

“I’m afraid so, Matsumoto-san,” the Trainee answered grimly, nervously tapping his pen against his clipboard.

“What’s the AU Control Room?”

The tapping abruptly stopped.

“What?”

“Nothing…”

“And you’re looking at me like that because…?” Jun insisted, his tone bordering on thinning patience.

“I’m so sorry,” Trainee answered immediately, looking thoroughly conflicted between expressing his repentance and controlling his mirth, “it’s just that, I’ve read that gag from humour fics a million times before but I’ve never seen it with my own eyes until now.”

Jun rolled his eyes, though he was a little embarrassed to have unintentionally become the generic airhead. “Given that you’ve read it a million times already, one would think you’d be immune to it,” he muttered under his breath. And a little more loudly, “Are you sure you’re not a fan disguising as a trainee?”

“Oh, no, of course not!” he replied, horrified at the idea that a Fan could infiltrate the Realm of Fanfiction. “That would be dreadful!”

“Why then is it a big deal that these…Mary Sues, are in the AU—A…U…Ahh-!” the Arashi member suddenly exclaimed, apparently having an epiphany so intense, he nearly palmed himself in the face. He went on a little more calmly,

“That’s the…thing that transports me into those stories…”

“That’s right!”

“And these Mary Sues…they’re…well, they tend to get…a little too…”

“…excited…?” the Trainee supplied, appearing relieved that Jun was beginning to cotton on the situation.

“…and exuberant, and…”

“…generally unsafe for characters, most especially for idols…like you…”

“…and now that Mary Sues can control where we go…”

“…you idols are in grave danger,” the Trainee finished for him.

A huge shiver ran down Jun’s spine, and he suddenly wished that the two absent members are at least safe from Sues in…wherever they are.

“Do you know where Aiba and Nino are right now?” he asked with increasing worry. “Are they safe?”

“Well, I have reason to believe that yes, they should be safe,” the Trainee answered, scanning his trusty clipboard. “They—,”

And all of a sudden, a terrified shout filled the room, and the two men scrambled for cover; Jun jumping over the armchairs and the Trainee bolting for the ‘Staff Only’ door, clutching the clipboard over his head. Colliding with the door in his haste, the Trainee was frantically pulling at the knob until he realized what had caused the sound. Or who.

“Sa…Sakurai-san?” he managed to croak.

Jun’s head popped out from behind the armchairs to confirm what he heard, and sure enough, Sakurai Sho was wide awake on the couch, although he was curled up and frozen in terror, shivering despite the couch cover.

“S-Sho?”

“I thought…she was going to…eat me…alive,” Sho’s voice was a high-pitched, horrified squeak. Jun had edged slowly from crouching behind the armchair to sitting on it, while the Trainee was treading softly back to the cushion, his clipboard carefully positioned in self-defence.

“Eat you?” Jun prodded gently.

“Eat you?” Ohno Satoshi, having woken up by Sho’s outburst, echoed.

“Um, could be the female lead in the fanfic where he was pulled out from, I think?” the Trainee suggested, “I mean, it was NC-17…most leads become…well, you know…when it comes to scenes that are, uh, explicit…”

Jun winced in sympathy and gave Sho a comforting pat, while the Trainee poured tea for both him and Ohno.

“You okay, Riida?” Jun asked.

“Yeah…,” Ohno replied slowly, taking in his surroundings. “I think I was fishing…and the last thing I remember was seeing this guy who looked like Toma-kun fall into the water.”

“Toma?” Jun whirred to ask the Trainee, “In an Ohmiya smut?”

“Hmm…” he mused, rummaging through the publications on the coffee table. He pulled out a booklet, opened it on a page, then added, “Ah, Ikuta-san is the catalyst to the romance that will eventually ensue between Ninomiya-san and Ohno-san, all according to the script here,” the Trainee said, handing Ohno the said booklet, which the man immediately recognized.

“I recognize this,” he answered after leafing through the first few pages, “but does Toma-kun really have such a small role? He lasts about…half a chapter.”

“Well, the author is also quite a fangirl of Ikuta-san so she finds it necessary to give him a role, however small, in almost every fic she writes. Most authors do have that compulsion for their favourite actors anyway, and it’s not as irritating as the authors inserting Mary Sues usually to represent their ideal versions within the story, you know,” explained the Trainee.

“Good point,” Jun agreed, remembering some more. “Usually I’m the one who has to be their rival. I may be self-conscious, but the logic of having my awfully-vain-and-girly-dude-self trying to compete against a boyish-but-perfect-in-every-way-even-without-make-up-girl always escapes me.”

“I think it’s your glamour that attracts competition, Jun-kun…a lot of girls lament the fact that you’re so much prettier than they are,” Ohno said thoughtfully.

“Riida, I love you,” Jun responded tremulously, deeply mollified. He and Ohno hugged shamelessly.

“Gosh, how touching,” Sho, who was now feeling a little less traumatized, commented with a little laugh.

“Sho-kun, are you feeling better now?” Ohno asked him.

“Yeah, I just feel thankful to have finally escaped her clutches,” he sighed, “because it’s really difficult to pretend to feel aroused when half the time you’re restraining yourself from wringing her neck in irritation. I seriously need a break from kinky heterosexual bed scenes; I’m running low on dignity. More tea please?” he added upon draining his cup.

Jun complied, feeling sorry for his bandmate. He was pretty sure that his Mary Sue count is nothing compared to that of Sho, and that he didn’t need to deal with troublesome heroines as much as the older man did.

“Where are Aiba and Nino?” Sho asked, and then, “and why was I suddenly pulled out in the middle of undressing? Not that I’m complaining, but I lost my clothes in the process.”

The Trainee, having gone quiet while tapping away on his PDA, suddenly looked up from the screen to answer Sho’s inquiry.

“We’re currently having a major technical crisis, Sakurai-san, and right now, I’m tracking both Aiba-san and Ninomiya-san from their assigned chapters because I need to make sure they end up here by 10 o’clock. I’ll explain everything as soon as everyone is here, but I have to find out more from the higher-ups,” he said, and after bowing politely, left for the ‘Staff Only’ door once again.

“Who’s the new guy?” Sho asked Jun as soon as the door closed.

“He’s the Trainee, borrowed from the J-Drama Department to do the Secretary’s grunt work for today,” Jun answered.

“And why is Toreii…eh, Torii-san doing the Secretary’s work?” Ohno followed up.

“Torii—? Er, the Secretary was needed to do something about a plagiarized SMAP fanfic.”

“Fanfics can be plagiarized?” Sho wondered, looking impressed.

Jun shrugged. “I guess so.”

“What story were you pulled out from, Jun-kun?” Ohno then asked, looking at Jun’s rather plain set of clothes, noting the lack of footwear.

“I was actually about to go to bed,” Jun said wearily, “that’s why I’m disoriented… can't remember as much as you guys do, you know… summoned here from the real world ahead of the scheduled time. Maybe I’ll get to remember everything by 10 o’clock…”

“ _That’s for sure~_ ” Sho sang a line from _Niji no Kakera ~no rain, no rainbow~_ , and all three burst into chuckles.

Several minutes passed, time which the idols had spent drinking tea and poking fun at Ohno’s latest smut fic. They had drained the pot at one point, and Jun had looked in the kitchen to make some more before discovering that the Trainee had also prepared snacks for them, apparently forgotten in the midst of the Mary Sue crisis.

“No wonder I had the compulsion to jump in and save him…and maybe smooch him back to consciousness…” Ohno was saying about Toma’s appearance, and looking at a page, “oh, it does say here that I’m supposed to melodramatically resist smooching ‘his insanely luscious lips’…” and there was general laughter.

“I feel sorry that you have to suffer so much,” Sho offered with feigned compassion. Ohno’s laughter pierced the room.

“I’m surprised the writer didn’t pass it off for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” Jun pitched in when he came back from the kitchen, bearing their second pot of tea along with the little cakes.

“If it were my smut fic, I’m sure they’re going to make me use that excuse,” Sho flippantly added.

“And I bet you’ll enjoy it, you closet pervert, you,” Ohno teased.

“Shush, they’ll hear you.” And there was more laughter.

“Oh, you’re eating the sweets, great!” the Trainee noted when he emerged from the ‘Staff Only’ room, clutching several sheets of paper. “I knew I had forgotten something.”

“Was there any news?” Sho asked, finally warm enough to discard the couch cover from his upper torso (it kept falling off his sloping shoulders) and bundled the rest of it around his lower body for the sake of decency.

“Oh, yes, there was a faxed memo, I haven’t read it…but here we go,” the Trainee shook out one of the sheets of paper to read from.

“From Technical Assistance,” he announced, “ _Greetings, we are currently experiencing some slight disturbance in the time-space continuum affecting transport in the following areas_ … there’s Amuse, JE, Ken-on… what a nightmare,” the Trainee sighed before continuing, “ _Rest assured that our technical team is working towards resolving the issue with the best efforts_ … Oh no, I don’t think so,” and with finality, the young man crumpled the paper and threw it over his shoulder, looking crestfallen.

“Why, what’s wrong?” Jun asked as he looked up from the cake he was serving.

“JE idols are materializing out of their respective fanfics in the middle of their scenes, and they call that a slight disturbance? You weren’t even summoned out of a chapter, Matsumoto-san, and yet you’re here out of schedule and with Fic Realm memory loss worse than my grandpa. That’s not a slight disturbance; I have reason to believe it’s our standard Genius-Hacker Sue happily cracking the system…and probably a band of Ojou-sama Sues to charm and keep the real techs at bay, swooning them enough to send a nonsensical memo…” and here, the Trainee was too drained of his deductive energies to keep going.

Staggering to recover from the ‘memory loss worse than my grandpa’ comment, Jun managed a strangled, “Well, sure…if that’s what you think,” before self-consciously resuming his earlier attempts at retrieving his memories of the Realm. Ohno patted his arm sympathetically, whispering, “It’ll be ten o’clock soon.”

“There’s a Genius-Hacker Mary Sue?” Sho asked incredulously.

“They’ve been around for a while now, Sakurai-san,” the Trainee sighed, “but not many authors are able to dream of Sues that can be qualified as Genius Hackers, you know, with actual dialogue and background to support their claims, not just the vague ‘ _she typed furiously on the computer until the site was hacked in a matter of seconds_ ’. They are rather impressive characters, but the fact remains: they’re Mary Sues. I’m just stumped; I guess some of them are real enough to get bored and target the Realm for lack of decent stories.”

“If they’re bored, why not give them something to do?” Ohno suggested.

The Trainee looked at Ohno like he had grown two heads. “Ohno-san, you’re a genius,” he breathed, then scribbled hastily on his clipboard while slowly backing away and disappearing behind the ‘Staff Only’ door once again.

“Well, that was quick,” Sho remarked lightly, shifting to a more comfortable position on the couch.

**— » — « —**

It was a good thing that the Trainee was somehow well-adjusted to the work despite being a substitute while the Realm was having an emergency situation. It was either not as alarming as they thought, or the Trainee was just properly handling everything. The three Arashi members spent the rest of the morning idly leafing through whatever they got their hands on; Ohno and Sho had started reading lines from the Ohmiya smut fic guidebook and were laughing themselves to death over the fact that they could practically guess every plotline in the romance part, cliché it was from beginning to end. Only when they got to the actual parts detailing the smut that the two men were suddenly choking over such creativity, that Jun even had to pause from perusing the concept folder and ask them what was wrong.

“Satoshi’s plotting how to subvert the smut with Nino, at least to prevent their bones from breaking over the, uh…acrobatics,” Sho answered for their leader. All three blushed from the imagery.

Ten o’clock arrived, and the Trainee finally emerged from the staff room. “Aiba-san and Ninomiya-san should be here anytime now,” he announced, nervously glancing back and forth from his watch and the door leading from the reception area. And at long last,

“Hang in there, Kazu-chan, we’re almost back,” Aiba Masaki was saying as the door flew open and he hauled both his companion and himself in the room.

“Yeah, I’m hanging, I’m hanging,” Ninomiya Kazunari, who was being carried on piggyback, answered jadedly; his limbs dangling about. “Yo, guys!” he greeted with a little more cheer as soon as he saw the three members in the room.

“Sho-chan, Oh-chan, Jun-chan! I met Kazu-chan on the way back!” Aiba uncharacteristically giggled, and Nino rolled his eyes as he roughly motioned for his transporter to put him down. Aiba was all too happy to comply; he unceremoniously dropped Nino by the beanbags and bundled over to where Sho was, giving him a mighty big bear hug.

“Nino!” Ohno and Jun both exclaimed, rushing over to where Nino fell, helping him up.

“Ah-! Careful there, J, I pulled a hip muscle a little while ago,” Nino gasped, flinging an arm each over his rescuers’ shoulder and allowing them to half-drag him to the armchair that Jun previously occupied. The Trainee had rushed to the kitchen to get the first-aid kit and some ice for cold compress.

“What did you pull that muscle for?” Jun asked worriedly, ignoring Sho’s muffled pleas while being squashed by Aiba’s enthusiastic embrace.

“Let’s just say that today’s chapter had too much…action…for Arashi’s titular ‘sexual powerhouse’ to handle,” was Nino’s wry answer, turning over his back to allow his bandmates to fuss over the injury. Jun would have continued to fret over Nino if he hadn’t heard a strangled, “Help…me-!” after which he promptly handed the compress to Ohno and motioned for the Trainee to help him pry Aiba off the dying Sho.

“Nooo! I want to huggle my Sho-chaaan~!” Aiba whined piteously, clinging harder on Sho’s neck.

“Masaki, you’re killing him!” Jun grunted, exerting his strength to pull harder at the taller man, while the Trainee rescued his victim.

“That idiot is still out of character!” Nino, now lying plank style over the armchair, shouted over the commotion.

“Goodness!” the Trainee exclaimed, rushing over to help Jun restrain the flailing Aiba as soon as he made sure Sho was still conscious and breathing. “Matsumoto-san, let’s get him over here so I can put him back to rights.”

Jun wanted to ask how, but he wordlessly complied, dragging Aiba with all his might towards the cushions. The Trainee faced the struggling idol and snapped his fingers; instantly, Aiba fell limp in Jun’s arms.

“He should be coming around any moment now,” he said, and true enough, Aiba stirred and woke up, seemingly in his right mind. Everyone sighed in relief, and Aiba sat up, rubbing his temples.

“That’s my twenty-third bipolar character this week,” Aiba complained, “Another one like that and I swear I’m going to publicly declare myself a schizophrenic.”

“Like that would make any difference,” Nino muttered.

“Shut up, Mr Sexual Powerhouse,” Aiba retorted, and he stood up and went over to where Nino was, poking hard at the sore spot on his back before heading towards Sho.

“That hurt, you idiot!” Nino yelped.

“I’m so sorry, Sho-chan. Are you okay?” Aiba asked Sho; clearly apologetic.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Sho rasped, “just…try not to lose it when we’re on a Sakuraiba slash, alright?”

Aiba nodded solemnly. Everyone sighed. And just as Jun was about to throw his hands up in frustration, a woman hurried inside the room and breathed out a hassled greeting.

“Hello, everyone!”

One look and the Trainee felt a big rush of relief. “Secretary!”

**— » — « —**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2018.09.14] - ran the chapter through Grammarly for a quick check and edit


	3. The Meeting Commences

**— » — « —**

“Secretary!” the Trainee cried out, looking like he was about to weep from intense relief.

The Secretary, a woman in her thirties and wearing a modest, corporate look that screamed efficiency, smiled benignly at her junior co-worker before pushing the door closed with her whole body weight thrown in. Seeing the struggle, the Trainee realized that there was something just beyond the door needing to be kept outside and rushed to help her in locking the room. Almost instantly, ominous poundings on the door followed, coupled with trilling (and annoying) voices.

Ninomiya Kazunari, who was nursing a pulled hip muscle from his last chapter, had quickly grasped the situation and thus asked, “Those are Sues, right?”

Slightly out of breath, the Secretary could only nod and sigh in reply before deftly straightening a dislodged pin on her hair because of the little exercise she just got. And then it took a half-second for her to completely ignore the trilling (and annoying) voices just outside the room and be back to her usual perky self.

“Why, it’s everyone from Arashi! How nice to see you again!” she greeted enthusiastically, greeting them with a courteous bow which the men (in varying levels of energy) hastened to return, except for the plank over the armchair that was Nino. Chuckling at his ‘sorry-I’m-currently-paralyzed’ expression, the woman gave Nino a motherly pat on the head before facing the Trainee.

“Well, I never expected anything more than that plagiarism issue this morning, but look at how the day has progressed!” she said to him in amazement. “I never would have really thought that she could plan and execute an elaborate prank on the Realm! Then again, she was pretty well-written, and if not for the observable Mary Sue indicators, she would have been an Original Character with her own fan base.”

“It’s somewhat a pity, now that I think of it,” the Trainee replied somewhat stiffly. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he all of a sudden sobbed out his morning frustrations.

“Oh, you have had quite a rough morning, I see,” his senior co-worker said with concern.

“I…,” he gulped, and instead of saying what was on his mind, he merely put a stopper for rest of his tears and composed himself back to professionalism.

“Would you like to stay in the staff room to have a proper man-cry?” the Secretary suggested, patting his shoulder.

That did it. The Trainee straightened up and swallowed audibly for the last time before saying, “I’m fine, thank you,” though his ears looked a little red. The woman gave him an impish grin, indicating that she was joking.

Everyone else chuckled along, including the blushing Trainee, until Sakurai Sho, who was again dressed in the couch cover when the Secretary entered the room, realized something.

“Wait, wait, wait…it was just a prank?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” the Secretary answered cheerfully, “and that’s why I came here; to explain the situation beyond that door.” The ominous pounding and trill of voices from earlier had already dissipated.

“Ah, that’s lovely!” she said, much relieved. “They must have been already shooed away by the maintenance people. But I don’t think it’s safe to go outside just yet; we have to wait for the official announcement from the higher-ups. So in the meantime, we can just proceed with the meeting.”

With the formal introductions done (Aiba thanked the Trainee for returning him to normal), the coffee table refilled with drinks and snacks (there were more cake and tea than possible), the seating rearranged (so that Nino could hog the couch while the rest took bean bags and cushions), and departmental memos handed out to everyone; the monthly fanfic evaluation meeting proceeded as planned. The Secretary was seated on one of the armchairs while the Trainee hovered here and there, assisting his senior co-worker as much as possible.

“Everyone from Arashi, welcome to the Other Green Room!” the Secretary grandly announced as she stood up for effect, and all of the Arashi members couldn’t help but give a round of polite applause while the Trainee popped a couple of confetti, giving the meeting an out-of-place, children’s party-like atmosphere.

“For this morning, you have been called here for our monthly Arashi fanfic evaluation meeting,” she declared, a little less formally. “Unfortunately, and I sincerely apologize for such an occurrence, our AU Control Room was hacked a little past eight-thirty by one of our Genius-Hacker Mary Sues and caused several glitches in the transport of idols. First, Matsumoto-san,” she then addressed the youngest of the idol group.

Matsumoto Jun, who was currently revelling in his regained memories of the Realm, sat up straighter from his cushion.

“I understand that you already remember everything you know about the Realm?” the Secretary inquired gently.

“Yes, I don’t have any other trouble retrieving facts about this place anymore,” Jun answered, his tone a little lighter, less withdrawn from the lack of confidence due to memory loss.

Not quite feeling relieved yet, the Secretary fought off a little frown. “But you don’t really…uh…remember anything…erm, explicit, from your chapters in this Realm, do you?”

“Explicit?” Jun repeated, confused.

“Well, for example, yesterday you had an R-rating chapter with Ninomiya-san…,” the woman delicately continued, “do you, by any chance, remember anything…specifically, uh, back-breaking?”

“Wai—what…you mean…?” Jun stammered, growing redder at what he thinks the Secretary was asking. He took a deep breath and bravely continued, “If by that, you mean, flat-out porn with Nino…,”

Everyone fell silent, waiting with bated breath.

“…no, I don’t remember the details.”

A collective sigh of relief ran across the room, so pronounced was it that Jun wanted to bite off the next thing he was about to say. But he went on, saying oh-most-hesitantly, “I did experience a little…,” and he was then rescued by Nino, who, also blushing a little, chimed in, “…stiffness at the back and legs the next morning, yes.” Jun shot Nino a grateful look before sinking into his seat.

“Oh, yes…of course,” the Secretary, and nearly everyone cleared their throats at the awkwardness of the topic. As she possesses the uncanny ability to recover quickly, the Secretary ploughed on, at least to explain the reason why she was asking these things.

“I’m definitely happy to hear that, believe me,” she clarified, “because I was merely making sure that none of you actually remember things that should’ve been properly filtered to avoid mental scarring and general awkwardness amongst yourselves. We’ve had such case before, quite long ago, and it didn’t really end well. Not to mention Johnny-san would have our heads cut off in a heartbeat if any of his idols experience any lasting damage from the Realm, you see.”

“And we were wondering how you could possibly go around the smut parts in your latest fic. I guess no need for it if you’re supposed to forget the details,” Sho said aside to Ohno Satoshi, who nodded with obvious relief, while Aiba Masaki let out his breathy giggle when he overheard the comment.

“Well then,” the Secretary continued, “no one else has trouble with their memories? None? Good! Moving on, with regards to the Genius-Hacker Sue that was responsible for your untimely transport between stories and real-life, I would like to congratulate Ohno Satoshi-san for his impressive and insightful suggestion as to what we could do for bored characters and avoid a repeat of this morning’s incident,” and she clapped her hands, joined by the Trainee, Jun and Sho, who had been present by then.

Ohno, embarrassed by the attention, replied faintly, “I didn’t think it was that impressive…”

“Nonsense!” was the answer, “Your suggestion is so spot-on it has already been followed by the higher-ups who have contacts on the outside…just a while ago, they’ve asked some friends to collaborate on a fanfic from where the Genius-Hacker Sue originated, and they’re also thinking of getting the other glittery Mary Sues and Gary Stus who can contribute in the plot. It’s going to be epic-long, with several sequels, and it will definitely keep these characters busy for the next 2-3 years. Who knows, it might become the successor to Twilight, if not better.”

“As expected of Riida!” Aiba exclaimed, and a millisecond later Nino exploded into, “Are you SERIOUS? The world doesn’t need another Twilight, _thankyouverymuch_.”

“My goodness, no. We will, of course, make sure that the story remains a Fanfic this time,” the Secretary said with grave emphasis.

The Trainee couldn’t help but add regretfully, “We never really imagined the last one would get published and rise to insane popularity despite the colossally obvious Mary Sue heroine and lack of plot…I mean, if you were to classify it, it’s obviously under PWP*, right?”

“And yet it got published…” Nino trailed off, the stress getting to his hip.

“That’s just…scary,” Jun muttered.

“On a somewhat positive side,” Sho interjected, “we never really ‘sparkled’ outside of our concert outfits, right?”

“That…or it could’ve been filtered from our consciousness to avoid mental scarring,” Ohno speculated, quoting heavily from the Secretary’s earlier words. “We did have parodies, I think.”

“And loads of vampire fics, if I may mention,” the Trainee said.

“Well, anything is better than sparkly skin,” Jun firmly acknowledged.

“Like Oh-chan’s tan, for example?” Aiba teased and sniggered as their youngest laughingly reached over to give him a good ol’ rap on the forehead.

“Before we move on to the next point, does anybody have questions or pressing concerns that we might address for this meeting?” the Secretary asked as the laughter died down, looking around everyone.

Sho raised a hand. “Do I have to return to the chapter where I was pulled from?” He looked both hopeful and hesitant as if he already knew the answer and was merely trying his luck.

The Secretary smiled kindly. “I’m sorry, Sakurai-san, but yes, you have to,” was her almost dismissive answer. “Other questions?”

Sho raised his other hand. “Do I really have to?” he asked, somewhat desperately, and adding a wildly conjured excuse, “What if I pull a muscle like Nino?”

This time, the Trainee piped up with an unhelpful, “Chances of such an incident is actually rather slim unless otherwise specified by the writer in a scene. And Ninomiya-san only pulled a muscle because he came from the climactic chapter of a harem fic. There was…erm, much physical activity within that it was natural to run short on flexibility.”

The idols wore similar expressions of shock, while Nino, who was looking smug, delicately coughed something which sounded like ‘powerhouse’.

“Well, any other questions? None?” One last sweep across the room for any raised hand was done before the Secretary declared, “Great! Let us then move on to the main topic for today.”

“So far, the fanfiction production rate that features Arashi is still very lively; you’re always kept busy with new chapters, one-shots and drabbles on a daily basis. Authors still love the way that whatever plot they come up with, all five of you can make an appearance, regardless of pairing, genre and rating. I must say, the dynamics of your group is so inspiring that even the least liked member gets as much as a cameo,” the Secretary said after a quick study of Arashi statistics on the Trainee’s clipboard, promptly handed over to the new person in charge.

“Not much can be said about the quality though, but of course, we all know it’s been a problem since the Internet was made available for everyone. You still do have a load of loyal writers who care about grammar, spelling and plot, but as they do take time churning out lovely chapters, the amount of low-quality fiction is still greater than the good reads. Nonetheless, the quality of your R-fics ranges from ‘Needs a Beta’ to ‘Exhilarating’, which is saying a lot for written porn,” she ended on a rather thrilled note.

The young men looked at one another, wondering if anyone had anything for a comment.

“Um, we don’t really know what to say to that?” Jun offered politely, “Well, at least with the R-fics, we don’t really remember. But um, we’re…glad?” and he looked at his bandmates, who simultaneously nodded to keep him going. “Yeah, glad because we’re…actually still able to do a lot of…chapters together. Yeah, that would be the case.”

Various versions of “That’s right,” were heard, and heads bobbing up and down in unison. And there was an awkward pause.

“Er, right!” the Secretary managed. “So! Um…the next on the list would be…pairings with other actors and actresses,” she paused, scanning the next page on the clipboard. “I suppose it’s just fair to conclude that Matsumoto-san’s latest romance drama wasn’t really enough to help step up his Het fics with actresses…”

“…which is of course not T-san’s fault, is it?” Nino deftly managed to throw in, always a little more receptive when it comes to his ideal woman. And somehow, at the mere mention of Takeuchi Yuko, he was now propped up on the couch, cross-legged, and no one had noticed yet how the idol seemed to have cured his hip in an instant.

“Oh, no, of course not!” the Secretary exclaimed, “I’m only saying that _Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku_ simply couldn’t erase the fact that Matsumoto-san really looks incredibly compatible with Inoue Mao-san. And if he were to be paired with an older woman, the image of someone like Koyuki-san in _Kimi wa Petto_ is much too compelling to let go of. Takeuchi-san’s character in NatsuNiji was…a little dampened by the fact that Kitamura-san already has a kid and—,”

“—in short, not R-fic-worthy?” Aiba finished for her. “Well, that’s too bad; I actually thought they could work as a new pair.”

“Not with Nino fanboying over her all the time, no,” Sho said logically. One glance over at Nino on the couch and he went, “Hey, wait a minute!”

There was a little scramble for spots on the couch, and Nino was dethroned on the cushions next to Ohno while Jun, Aiba and Sho each won a place. The Ohmiya SK duo thus proceeded with a little cuddling time, although any molestation on Nino’s part was not executed due to the fact that he was fresh from being molested by harem girls himself…and surprisingly desired a little break.

“Which leads us to the conclusion that the sure-fire way to encourage Het fics for Matsumoto-san without subjecting him to original characters that are most likely to be Mary Sue candidates is to have him work with Inoue-san again,” the Trainee concluded. “On another related note, I believe it’s easier for all of you to be in a Het fic if you’re paired up with actresses you’ve worked with before in real life, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s like working on a drama…” Sho agreed, “I think it’s as comfortable as when we’re paired with one another, isn’t it?” he asked his band members, who seem to be of the same opinion.

“Any possibilities of a JunxMao collaboration in the near future?” the Secretary again turned to Jun, who could only shrug helplessly.

“Couldn’t they watch _HanaDan_ all over again?” he half-suggested.

“Not everyone is as addicted as Becky, you know,” Aiba said aside to him. Both of them smothered a chuckle at the memory of the actress’ fan reactions for _HanaDan_.

“Speaking of Becky-san, she and Aiba-san still make a complementary pair,” the Trainee added, and checking several other pages, “Then for Sakurai-san, we have Horikita Maki-san…eh, generally smut though…”

“…just smut?” Sho complained.

“…and also Fukada Kyoko-san, I almost forgot,” the Trainee went on, “And as for Ninomiya-san…”

“Ah, Yuriko-chan…” Ohno immediately produced.

“Yoshitaka Yuriko-san is quite a fan favourite, yes,” the Secretary said very fondly. “It’s not a surprising thing to see NinoxYuriko fics ranging from fluffy to smutty ever since GANTZ, so it’ll be a while before the hype dies down. Is it possible that you two are in a relationship?” she added hopefully.

“You know better than to ask, silly,” Nino answered, laughing at her question.

“Aha! Could it be that you’re a fan of Nino and Yuriko-chan?” Aiba asked the Secretary curiously.

She laughed, a little embarrassed. “You could say that, I suppose.”

“What about Riida then? Who’s he usually paired with?” Aiba asked the room in general.

Everyone, including Ohno himself, looked at one another…and shrugged.

“Well…,” Aiba said slowly, “you know you can always be in a love-triangle with me and Becky, Riida.”

Cue the cricket sound.

**— » — « —**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2018.09.14] - ran the chapter through Grammarly for a quick check and edit


	4. Jun and Aiba Exchange Ideas

**— » — « —**

“You know, I just don’t understand why I still get paired up with a lot of Mary Sues…and in smut fics out of all things,” Sakurai Sho was saying a few minutes later when their monthly Arashi fanfic evaluation meeting took a fifteen-minute break. Ninomiya Kazunari had left the cuddle space that is Ohmiya SK and sought double huggle by squeezing on the lengthy couch between Matsumoto Jun and Aiba Masaki, while Ohno Satoshi took one of the armchairs beside the couch. By this time, Aiba had lent Sho the jacket of his high school uniform costume so the couch cover made a makeshift man-skirt for the previously half-naked idol.

Earlier, the Secretary had to leave the little gathering, having been called back to the AU Control Room problem. The Trainee was once again delegated with the task of conducting the meeting, but with the current situation of having to be confined within the Green Room for the safety of the idols, he had to call for a break to coordinate with the security team before they could proceed.

“What I do not understand is why you’re still actually wondering about it, Sho-chan,” Nino answered, nursing the yellow teacup marked with a fancy ‘Kazu’.

Sho whirled in his direction. “Huh? You mean it’s natural for me to be constantly under the mercy of a perfectly irritating heroine?” he asked incredulously.

Aiba’s breathy giggle, Jun’s amused chuckle and Ohno’s silent laughter joined and harmonized with Nino’s bratty snort as he said, “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I think someone who sings a solo like ‘T.A.B.O.O.’ is bound to be targeted by the more excitable crowd of female fans.”

“That’s right, I think that was pretty much asking for trouble,” Aiba agreed.

“But I have ‘Kono Mama Motto’ for this year,” Sho countered. “Shouldn’t that change a bit of my image at least?”

“It’s got the potential for an image change, but probably the fans are still in shock,” Jun mused. “Don’t you think it had been a bit drastic?”

“Well, bummer,” Sho pouted, “I thought my latest solo would bring out the fluff…oh, hold that thought.”

He seemed to deliberate sincerely that even the others fell silent to wait for his conclusion. “No, never mind, I think ‘fluff’ plus ‘Sue’ won’t bode well for me either. Forget I asked, okay?” and the rapper finally settled his worries with a sip of his tea.

The room was lulled into a comfortable silence until there was a little gasp heard between Jun and Aiba. Both turned to see what was wrong with Nino, but the idol only gave them an awkward grin as he crossed one arm over his chest and buried himself deeper in the couch while gulping the rest of his tea. He motioned for Aiba to put his cup back on the coffee table, which the tall guy obeyed with some unintelligible half-hearted complaint. It was then that Jun noticed what Nino was wearing.

“Say, what kind of harem fic was it exactly?” he asked, fingering the sleeve of Nino’s pirate shirt, which had been open in the front until at some point in time when Nino did close it. And instead of answering Jun, he pulled his band mate to mutter the answer in his ear.

“It’s some sort of cross between _Pirates of the Caribbean_ and _Don Juan de Marco_ , huh?” Jun mulled over, taking in the rest of Nino’s garb. Just like him, Nino was also barefoot, but Jun was surprised at the smoothness of the latter’s feet compared to his own. Since when did Nino get pretty feet? “And what’s wrong with your voice?”

“What are you whispering about?” Aiba asked curiously, draping an arm over his seatmate’s shoulder. Feeling Nino squirm beside him, he inspected his bandmate closely…and soon jumped from his seat in shock.

“What’s wrong, Aiba-chan?” Ohno asked, closing his fic guidebook when Aiba ran to him.

“Nino…he’s…”

“He’s what?” Sho pressed. At that point, Jun had pulled at Nino’s left foot.

“Okay, stop that!” a feminine voice had called out, and everyone wondered if they were hearing wrong. It was Nino who had shouted, but it had been Nino with a voice unmistakeably higher in pitch. It had also been Nino whose features were softened, and Jun, who was still stuck between the armrest and his bandmate, let go of the foot and wiggled enough for space in order to see him better.

“You’re Nino, alright,” he began as he examined the feminine face, and when he held Nino’s suddenly thinner wrist and pried the arm off the latter’s chest, Jun added, “but with…well…boobs.”

“Again?” Sho laughed, not really surprised to see Nino sporting a new hairdo to match.

“Thank you,” Nino replied tersely, “you can stop staring now.” And he, or she, struggled to free her arm from Jun’s grip. Sighing with the air of long-suffering, she called out, “Trainee-san, I don’t remember having a scheduled Genderswitch today.”

The Trainee, hearing his name being called, emerged from the ‘Staff Only’ room looking a little preoccupied. One look at the slim woman next to Jun on the couch and the Trainee blinked. “Ninomiya-san?”

“Yes, yes, the pretty one, yes,” was the impatient reply. “And?”

“Oh. That came faster than I thought. Well, here,” he said, handing Nino another booklet like the one Ohno was holding. “You’re not really supposed to change yet, but the author wanted to post the Prologue before she goes into hiatus. Anyway, it’s just a quick introductory chapter.”

Girl!Nino huffed as she took the guidebook and flipped through the pages. After a while, her eyes widened with excitement, “Oh, MatsuKen’s going to be here!”

“Is he your lead?” Aiba asked, bundling back to his spot between Nino and Sho. If there was someone who was quick to recover from the shock, it was Aiba.

“No, this is Het with Sho-chan,” Girl!Nino answered showing Aiba a page, “and MatsuKen is going to be my ex. He died, but there’s going to be flashback scenes of how much we love each other.”

“Awesome!” Sho’s cooperation was already in the bag; he seems to be more encouraged with starring in a Het-slash-Genderswitch fic with one of the members instead of his usual Sue problem. “Is he going to be resurrected?” he asked Girl!Nino.

“Are you wishing for a Fantasy AU, Sho-chan?” Girl!Nino enquired back as she scanned a couple more pages to find the answer to Sho’s question. “It doesn’t say anything about a resurrection. All I can see so far is that I’ll be just in some sort of minor Angst Coma over his death before I eventually recover through some soul searching monologue and then you waltz your way into my, uh, life. It seems pretty normal and standard for me…but with lots of run-on sentences.”

“But where’s my booklet?” Sho then asked, looking around for the Trainee, who seemed to have disappeared into the Staff Room once again.

“I don’t think you’ll need one for this Prologue, Sho-chan,” Aiba said, squinting at the bottom of a page. “You won’t really make an appearance until the end. It just says, ‘… _and that’s how she met Sakurai Sho_ ’,” he read out loud. “I don’t even think you’d get to say ‘Hi’ in here, probably just some soulful eye contact and nothing else.”

Both Jun and Ohno chuckled at the disgruntled look from Sho, obviously disappointed that it’s going to take long before he gets the break-from-OC!Het that he wanted.

“Ninomiya-san, Sakurai-san, and Ohno-san,” the Trainee then called as he re-emerged from the staff room, “I got word that we’re going to have to put you back in your respective fanfics while they’re sorting the AU Control Room problem.”

“I thought we’re supposed to stay put?” Jun interrupted, “What if they get pulled out abruptly from their chapters all over again?”

“Don’t worry, Matsumoto-san, they’ve figured out that the bulk of the Genius-Hacker Sue prank for the JE Department had been aimed at NEWS and KAT-TUN; it’s just that the onset of the attack affected most of the idol population. But right now, Arashi should already be safe to move about in the Realm and the majority of our security measures have been repositioned to ensuring that the targeted idol groups won’t be tossed about in stories while the higher-ups are negotiating with the Sue.”

“What about the meeting?” Ohno asked, stashing the booklet inside his vest as he stood up.

“We’ll wait for you, it shouldn’t really be that long, then we’ll go through with the rest of the items and conclude the meeting before lunch,” the Trainee answered. Checking his watch, he added, “Shall we go?”

Jun had a few other things to say, but Girl!Nino had cut him short by throwing herself into his arms and giving him a peck on the cheek. “See you later, Jun-kun,” she said, grinning mischievously before proceeding to give Aiba the same parting treatment.

“Gawd, Nino, save it for the fanfic, you big flirt,” Jun complained, but he was laughing as he did so.

“What’s the point in that? I’ll be in so much angst in this fic, there isn’t the tiniest room for flirting,” she retorted as she pulled away from Aiba. “Then who knows when the author will be back from hiatus to make me a girl again; I might as well have fun in this form while I still can.”

“Well, the sooner I finish mine, the better,” Sho sighed, gathering the last few bits of determination to help him go through with the final paragraphs of the NC-17 chapter from where he was pulled out. He had reluctantly returned Aiba’s jacket and even more reluctantly shed off the couch cover, leaving him only in his underwear as he, Ohno and Girl!Nino filed towards the exit; the Ohmiya duo having another round of cuddling battle with Ohno looking like a fisherman having fun with being partially bullied by his pretty girlfriend in a pirate costume.

“I won’t be kissing Toma-kun, you idiot,” Ohno was insisting as Girl!Nino relentlessly poked his side. “It’s not in the script.”

“I’ll be escorting them to their respective AUs, Aiba-san, Matsumoto-san. Then maybe we can discuss a few things while waiting for them to finish,” the Trainee said, bowing at Aiba and Jun then leading the way out with the three other members.

“Have a safe trip!” Aiba called out, waving at the departing figures. The door closed with a light thud.

“You’re done with your chapter, Masaki?” Jun asked, dropping down from the couch and on his knees as if to look for something.

“Yep, and so far there’s no news of when the next one will be.”

Still searching to the point of looking under the fluffy rug, Jun went on, “What’s the story?”

“It’s a typical romance plot, but at twenty-one chapters, we’re still on the majority of flashback parts where my character is still the friendly, optimistic, cuddle-whore idiot before growing up into a depressed and guilt-ridden bisexual bartender.”

“Is that still the _Bartender_ AU with Kanjiya Shihori and Kaneko Nobuaki, the one where he breaks your heart in the past and then you both grow up as rivals in the bartending world?”

“Yeah, still that one.” Aiba hummed his response, abruptly raising both legs when Jun started reaching beneath the couch right on where he was sitting. “What’s up?” he asked back.

Jun straightened up and reclaimed his spot beside his bandmate and showed him the concept folder which he had retrieved. “There are some interesting fanfiction concepts in here,” he explained, opening the folder and letting Aiba see the ones he’s been looking at earlier.

“Neat! Is that us as Kamen Riders?” Aiba asked, apparently interested and began reading out loud. “‘ _Kamen Rider Double…MatsuJun as the half-boiled detective_ ’? What’s that mean?”

“No idea, but maybe if I buy the DVD and watch, I’ll find out,” Jun answered. “You don’t watch it either?”

“Not really,” Aiba shrugged. “But what’s with the sudden interest?”

“I don’t know,” Jun began, then reached over to turn several pages to show Aiba, “I guess it’s fundamentally a lot better than having Nino and me transform into Yellow and Pink rangers if we’re to do something like this,” and it was a concept of Arashi in the _Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger_ AU.

“Oh, hahaha, right! They’re the girls in the team!” Aiba said gleefully, earning a roll of the eyes from Jun. “But see here, the author was thinking of having purple instead of pink…”

“And then what? Call me Gokai Purple?”

“It doesn’t sound that weird,” was Aiba’s reasoning, despite the immediate chortle.

“Even Toma-kun’s here, and he’ll get to be both Gokai Silver and Gold Mode. Heck, I’d like to be Silver.”

“And who’s going to cover Gokai Pink?” Aiba countered, “Yamapi? Besides, you already shine enough both in fanfiction and in real life. There’s that jacket we gave you on your twenty-sixth birthday, too.”

“Fine,” was somewhat sullenly uttered. “So you’re saying that you prefer combining colourful mechas more than riding motorbikes?” Jun then asked, getting back to the initial point of discussion.

“Bikes are definitely cool but…so is a space pirate ship mecha…even if it’s colourful,” Aiba answered truthfully, looking at the story drafts. “Then again, if we’re going to do the ranger fic, Riida won’t be the leader, since he’s the blue ranger by default.”

Jun was almost nodding in agreement when Aiba added, “You’re not just upset by the fact that, if ever, Sho will get to be Captain Marvelous and not you, are you? Come to think of it, Riida will have to be demoted from captain to first-mate, too.”

“Idiot, no one will know it’s Sho if he’s going to be named Captain Marvelous just like in the original.”

“Oh, you’re right, heh.”

“And no, it won’t upset me if I won’t have the Captain Marvelous title in a fanfic,” Jun added for good measure, and Aiba laughed.

“But you know, this space pirate ranger fic could work in so many ways,” said Aiba, starting to completely warm-up to the whole idea. “I mean, it says here that Blue is laconic, Green is kind-of gadget-savvy, Yellow is wealth-driven and Pink is a princess. We’ve done those characters in fics before, haven’t we? Well, of course, you were a prince, not a princess,” he amended, seeing the glare that was about to form on Jun’s countenance.

“And how does Red fit in for Sho-kun? He’s not exactly described as a failboat here,” Jun challenged.

“I don’t know, maybe give him the title Captain…Nadegata, and have him be an out-of-character I-can-handle-heights-very-well Sho-chan,” Aiba randomly put together. “Ah, welcome back, Trainee-san!”

The young man came back from the hallways and joined the two, sitting on the armchair previously occupied by Ohno. Seeing the concept folder, the Trainee’s face lit up and said, “There are really some good ideas in there, shame they’re not written. Are you planning to write fanfiction, too?”

Both idols chuckled appreciatively. “Not really. But there was a one-shot crackfic where we tried writing fanfiction ourselves, and it was pretty funny,” Aiba said.

“Apart from not having enough time, I don’t think we’d remember any of the ideas we’ve come up with in this Realm once we’re back to our real world, would we?” Jun added.

“Fair enough.”

**— » — « —**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2018.09.14] - ran the chapter through Grammarly for a quick check and edit


	5. A Special Guest

**— » — « —**

Matsumoto Jun and Aiba Masaki were left on their own in the Other Green Room couch when it was obvious that they weren’t in the mood to discuss anything without the rest of the members. It wasn’t as if they were incompetent if all five of them weren’t together; the duo was merely too preoccupied laughing themselves to death over reading an old series of one-shot _Saigo no Yakusoku_ crack fics after Aiba had chanced upon after he had thought of borrowing the Trainee’s PDA.

Much like what Sakurai Sho and Ohno Satoshi had been doing earlier that day, Aiba and Jun were reading lines to each other with such feeling that they were soon wiping tears from their eyes and running out of breath from excessive giggling. The difference was that they had not done the scenes themselves; their respective characters had been the ones assigned to go through the motions of AU hopping and/or Mary Sue thwarting. The excitement over the concept folder had been replaced by such leisurely reading that gave them a chance to relive the fun days of shooting their drama project.

The Trainee, on the other hand, having figured out that it wouldn’t do any good fretting over whether to get Jun and Aiba to cooperate in getting some of the items on his checklist done, decided to answer some of the more relevant phone calls that had been plaguing his mobile all morning. He was conversing in relaxed tones with a colleague, the exchange occasionally punctuated by the laughter of the two Arashi members on the couch. It was this cheerful scene that Ninomiya Kazunari had come upon when he burst into the room yelling a hearty, “I’m baaaaack!!!”

“Welcome back!” Jun and Aiba chorused, while the Trainee stood up from the armchair to give him a polite bow and a smile before returning to his phone conversation, all the while noting Nino’s timely arrival on his clipboard. They all noticed how he was already back to his original self and was wearing a rather dandy set of clothes, which were quite similar to the ones he wore in VS Arashi when Takeuchi Yuko had been one of the guests.

“Where did you get that?” Aiba asked as Nino sat down beside him.

“From the Prologue of my latest Genderswitch, where else?”

“But you’re a girl in that one.”

“Well, I can’t just phase back to manhood wearing girly threads, can I? So I made sure I borrowed something before I had to go back,” Nino explained as he pulled out a DS from one of the inner jacket pockets. Soon he was deep in the game, yet skilfully remaining in the conversation.

“Wow, you even stole a DS,” Aiba added, impressed.

“The DS, I can understand, but I honestly don’t get why you had to steal a suit,” Jun said. “It has never bothered you getting back here in girl clothes before.”

“Why, for T-san, of course!” Nino answered as if it was the most obvious thing.

“T-san?”

“I heard she was going to have a cameo in one of the fanfics…”

Nino needed not finish his explanation as soon as both Aiba and Jun let out huge sighs of resigned comprehension. No need to tell them that Nino would, of course, make sure that he was impeccably dressed and prepared to meet his ideal woman of ten or so years, even if it was just a chance meeting in the hallways of the Realm of Fanfiction.

“And were you able to get a glimpse of her?” Aiba prodded.

“Eh, not really. There were Sues running about as well, so I couldn’t loiter much.”

Aiba laughed, but not unkindly. Whatever he was about to say next was cut off by a harassed-looking Sho who had run haphazardly into the room, nearly tripping over the rug in his haste. He slammed the door and leaned onto it in the attempt of painfully catching his breath.

“Well, here’s Sho-chan and his after-marathon look,” Nino commented lightly after a quick glance.

“I don’t think so,” Jun mildly objected, obviously pertaining to Sho’s Realm outfit instead, “he looks more like a butler to me.”

“But the important thing is that he’s fully clothed now, right?” Aiba added. “How did it go, Sho-chan?”

“Corridor…” he panted, “Sue…after me…ran for…my life.”

“Heh,” Nino snorted, “glad to see you in one piece then.”

“No, no, no…I’ll be finishing the report after I’m done with this meeting,” the Trainee was now insisting on the phone, all the while helping Sho into a chair and pouring freshly brewed tea inside the red ‘Sho’ cup. “Yes, you’ll have to wait. Seriously…,”

“Were you supposed to be a butler in that last fic?” Aiba inquired as soon as Sho regained normal breathing.

“I think I have another one after this meeting,” Sho answered, removed the spectacles and putting it inside his jacket pocket. “I was a journalist in the NC-17 I just finished.”

“How did that one go?” Nino asked with a smirk.

“Oh, geez…you know I can’t talk about _that_ —it’s really embarrassing,” Sho said with much emotion—thickly laced with irony—until he dropped the act and continued, “…like I’d remember something traumatizing. It’s a good thing they got this kind of system of wiping our memories clean of ‘above PG-13’ love scenes. All I remember was that once I lost the boxers, everything went white. The next thing I knew, I was showering in the bathroom with this urge to _rap about love_ —supposedly feeling inspired.”

Jun chuckled. “So what’s with the butler get-up now?”

“Wait, I know!” Aiba said excitedly. “It’s _Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de_! Right?”

“I guess,” Sho laughed, a little embarrassed that his potential as a butler character is given renewed interest. It might feel different than the times he had been someone’s butler in fanfiction, but hopefully, his portrayal of Kageyama can garner enough attention so he and the actual character would have an equal portion of the fanfic load in the Realm.

“We’re back!” a new voice greeted into the room. Everyone turned to the door, expecting to see Ohno (although the voice obviously belonged to someone else), but they were all greeted by Ikuta Toma’s cheerful countenance, despite appearing to have been recently dragged out of a lake. Moments later, Ohno entered the room—equally soaked—and both men made to occupy the available space in the centre, regardless of whether they were dripping on the carpet or not.

“I invited Toma-kun for a little break here in the Green Room, is it alright?” Ohno asked the Trainee, who, since then, has ended his lengthy phone discussion and was already focused on the matter at hand.

“No problem, Ohno-san,” the Trainee answered blithely, and turning to the guest, “and welcome back to the Other Green Room, Ikuta-san. I’m the Trainee, filling in place of the Secretary to take charge of Arashi’s monthly fanfiction evaluation meeting.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Trainee-san,” Toma answered genially, bowing back at the Trainee—and getting several drops of lake water from his hair right into Sho’s tea. “Everyone from Arashi, I hope you don’t mind me intruding today,” he added, turning to his fellow Johnny’s. Another enthusiastic bow…and the screen of Nino’s DS got sprinkled.

The gamer clucked his tongue in mild annoyance, saying, “What in the world are you being so formal for?”

Toma laughed, collapsing on the fluffy carpet. “I’m just messing with you, Nino-kun,” the actor sighed. “Gawd, this morning’s chapter was awful. My Guide told me that I had to be on the freaking boat stuck for at least two hours under an impending storm, just to wait for Ohno-san to get back to that AU so I can finally fall in—again—and for him to save me from drowning. What was this I heard about some Sue attack earlier this morning?”

“It’s a bit of a long story, and it’s still being sorted out as of this time. But I’m sure they’ll be publishing some newsletter detailing the events afterwards,” the Trainee said. Toma seemed not to care too much and left it at that, barely nodding to indicate his understanding.

“Well, now that everyone is back—ah, Ohno-san, don’t worry. You’ll soon dry up without health risks so please have a seat—we can resume the meeting. Does everyone agree?”

“Yay!” Arashi chorused, with Nino doing his signature fist pump and Toma giving an enthusiastic little whoop. He sat up from the carpet and started paying attention, grabbing a beanbag to be comfortable.

“Right, great!” the Trainee cleared his throat and was soon squinting at the clipboard. “So far we’ve covered—yes, Sakurai-san?”

“No confetti?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“So far we’ve covered the quality and trends of the daily fanfiction production, and when it comes to pairings with other actresses, we’ve deduced that last month’s fan favourite actresses are pretty much still the same, so all of you may still inspire consistent Het fics, especially when occasion warrants it. As for slash pairings outside of Arashi—well…the regulars appear to be Ninomiya-san, Aiba-san and…everyone actually has their turn, with JE having lots of other idols to pair up with anyone of you. Then there are also your individual projects with or without other actors…so there’s more material to be written, slash-wise, at the very least.”

“That last part was a definite jab at GANTZ, wasn’t it?” Nino asked wryly.

“It’s just what the stats say, Ninomiya-san. You did realize that you actually confessed love for MatsuKen for the whole of Japan to witness, right?” the Trainee answered with a laugh. “That’s more than what fans were expecting, so naturally they love it. And that Genderswitch you just had earlier is merely one of the many manifestations of such pairings, and you know you’ve done a lot of others.”

“I just realized that MatsuKen is kind of nice for not chewing you out for dragging him into more Realm stories,” Ohno remarked casually.

Nino looked smug. “Seems I have chosen a great man, huh?”

“Okay, that was a _little_ bit creepy,” Toma muttered under his breath, but Sho heard it and chuckled.

“Anyway,” the Trainee interjected, “we’ve gone over that already, so we’re going to open the meeting for more of your feedback on the stories you get into, as well as any suggestions you might have regarding…well, whatever concerns you have within the Realm.”

“I have a concern.” Sho raised a hand for the fourth time that day.

Unsurprised, the Trainee hid a tiny smile before addressing him. “Yes, Sakurai-san?”

“Well, it’s not really a concern, but more of a question,” he clarified. “I know I’ve only been complaining so far about the kinds of things that these authors are making us do, but there are some who definitely gave us a lot of interesting experiences in stories. Is there some way they can be compensated…or rewarded, so as to encourage the rest of the fans to write, or at least improve, in the same way?”

“Like an incentive, you mean?” the Trainee posed. He was somewhat surprised at the question because he was generally more prepared to hear complaints against the less talented writers and rarely got to hear anything resembling a commendation for the better ones.

“That’s a little tricky, Sakurai-san,” he said. “With such authors, the reward is in the act of writing itself…and it is reinforced by positive feedback from their readers. No one pays them for it, yet they spend time working on a story only because they are inspired by the things you do on television or other things they’ve read about and wishing they could see you in such settings.”

“So you’re saying that as much as we cannot hamper the production of low-quality stories, we also cannot take an active part in boosting the production of the well-written ones?” Jun asked.

“In the Real World…no, I don’t think so,” the Trainee answered carefully. “Unless of course you read the stories back in your own world and giving them a pat-on-the-back comment for portraying you with such an interesting character, I don’t see anything that would count as active. I think it is best that you just continue to make them happy the way you already do. And you’re already doing so much for your fans—it’s no longer fair to get you to do more work—work that the Realm can actually do for you.”

“On the other hand, here in the Realm, I must say that you do have the power to resist the Forces as much as you can, although it will put a strain on your willpower if you resist too much. And conversely, if you really like the story you are in, you can be as cooperative as much as your temperaments can handle it. That will make things easier for the author to finish a story and move on with another. In that way, you are, so to speak, inspiring them as they write.”

“I think what you’re saying about resisting the Forces would be easier to accomplish if all of us are in one story,” Nino spoke up after a while. “It’s easier to—I don’t know, wheedle the Forces into our favour since we’re much influential that way—and five times more appealing, too.”

“Actually,” Toma piped up, “It’s also easier to accomplish if none of you are the main characters. Rather, there is little need for resistance.”

“Say what?” Aiba asked, somewhat confused.

“Now that I think of it, Ikuta-san is right,” the Trainee agreed. “It’s primarily the reason why he doesn’t sustain much mental damage—however temporary they may be, of course—even if he appears in a lot of stories handled not just in the Arashi Section but also in NEWS, TOKIO and other Sections under the JE Department. His roles are mostly secondary or tertiary—,”

“But, of course, that’s just saying you end up being in stories on your own, and the narrative Point Of View is the OC’s and not yours,” Toma added. “The only time you really need to struggle is when, for example, Nino is forced to be a clingy and desperate cry-baby that would end up slashing his wrists as soon as he finds out Ohno is making out with Sho— _for every chapter_ in the story. That’s when it gets frustrating, right?”

“I think I’ve been in that story before,” Ohno said wistfully. Both Sho and Nino snorted at that.

“Thus, if most of the story is in the POV of the Original Character, then you can spend most of it watching by the sidelines while the OC does his/her monologue and poignant self-realizations throughout the story. If you’re needed for some melancholic or romantic support, you just have to follow the dialogue—and any kind of line delivery won’t matter, because they’re _read_ and not heard,” the Trainee finished with relish.

“Wow…I never really thought about it that way,” Sho was clearly in awe. He was already imagining how he can save the effort of resistance the next time he gets assigned with a Sue, and boy, was Sho feeling _very_ optimistic!

The PDA that had been in Aiba’s hands the whole time alerted all of them of an email, and Aiba promptly handed the device back to its owner. The Trainee immediately began reading the apparently urgent memo, and within seconds, his face broke into a relaxed smile.

“We got great news, everyone,” he said, “the Friendly Forces managed to get the Prologue chapter for the Genius Hacker Sue to be featured in, thus effectively removing her from the AU Control Room. The technicians then revised the security codes and placed the room on a lockdown until they could recover the whisked off JE idols and put everything in order. So far, you’re all cleared for travelling back to the Real World for some well-deserved rest until tomorrow when everyone can resume their chapter assignments like the usual.”

“You mean we can all go home?” Aiba clarified.

“Most definitely.”

“What about this meeting?” Sho asked.

“The Department had issued a blanket order to return all Characters to their respective worlds as soon as they’re done with their current assignments. We are also to cease extra-curricular activities for the rest of the day,” was the reply, but the Trainee added, “…because there’s going to be a staff meeting right after lunch to discuss the whole thing. We could, of course, schedule another meeting tomorrow, but I think with all the fiasco today, we can just adjourn until next month.”

“Neat!” Aiba was enthusiastic. He stood up and wore the jacket of his high school uniform in preparation for leaving, while Nino pocketed the DS and began helping Jun replace the used cups and teapot on the tray.

Everyone helped restore order in the Other Green Room and back to its original state, and soon, they were all ready to leave. Jun silently said goodbye to the publications on the coffee table, the concept folder neatly stacked on top of the guidebooks. The group then jovially wished each other a good day, with Toma getting special recognition for his timely insights (according to Sho). They were filing for the exit, with Jun and Ohno taking the lead and behind them, Sho was bombarding Toma with questions on other tips to spare oneself from mental anguish. Nino, Aiba and the Trainee were all subdued in the rear—that is, until Aiba spoke up.

“You know, Trainee-san,” Aiba added thoughtfully, “I just realized your PDA doesn’t have phone capabilities. You’ve been using that one long before we debuted as Arashi, haven’t you?”

“Oh, not me specifically,” the Trainee answered. “This was company issued and it used to belong to my senior co-worker before he got promoted from training. But essentially, yes, this has been around before Arashi, although we’re not exactly bound by the same time and space laws governing the Real World, so I think it’s much longer than that.”

“Well, whether you have a fully-functional antique or not, I think you should switch to Android AU,” Aiba said sincerely. “It’s pretty cool, and the name even matches the AU Control Room!”

Nino rolled his eyes, “OH, _Aiba_.”

“What? I’m just saying.”

**— » — « —**

It was one of those creeping sensations as one falls asleep like something will happen soon but one can no longer do anything else except to let sleep take over. One moment, Matsumoto Jun was closing his eyes, and in the next, as soon as he felt the need to struggle back to waking consciousness, his eyes blinked open and he was looking straight at the sky…which did not belong to his bedroom. In fact, he was not in his bedroom. He was…on his feet and staring at the clouds on what looked like the deck of a pirate ship, except that the said pirate ship was _flying_ in the sky.

That was his cue, and the memories of hidden realms and Forces-at-Work came flooding back to him like a welcoming guide. He knew that he was in a Story and he also knew that there should be a physical Guide somewhere, and true enough, in his coat pocket was a little booklet that read: _A Chest Full of Keys, a Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger_ AU. Jun gave a little laugh, and upon noting that he was dressed in purple-themed princely clothing, he quickly scanned the opening pages of his Guidebook—and immediately set off to find Aiba.

**— » the end « —**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [2018.09.14] - ran the chapter through Grammarly for a quick check and edit

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Arashi. Concept and The Secretary character is based from The Fanfic Lounge by CNell, a story I’ve admired since my early days of reading fanworks. This is a work of fiction, and any similarities to fanfic plots and characters written or unwritten herein mentioned are purely coincidental.


End file.
